Sunil Dutt Biography

Actor, filmmaker, social crusader and politician Sunil Dutt was a dynamic personality whose life was marked by perpetual struggle and noble feats.

Sunil Dutt was born on June 6, 1929 in the Jhelum district of present day Pakistan. At an early age he was exposed to life’s struggle after the demise of his father and after his family (headed by his uncle) migrated to India following the 1947 partition.

Dutt studied in Mumbai's Jai Hind College and started working as a radio show host for Radio Ceylon in the early 1950s. It was in one of the interviews for this show that he first met Nargis, who was to become his wife later on.

Dutt’s acting career began in 1955 with director Ramesh Saigal’s movie ‘Railway Platform’. But it was not until Mehboob Khan’s magnum opus ‘Mother India’ (1957) when Dutt emerged as an actor to reckon with. In the film, Dutt played a short-tempered, angry son of Nargis. During the making of this film a fire accident happened on the sets. It is believed that Dutt braved the raging fire to save Nargis and thereby won her love.

Dutt showed his flair for humor in the all-time comedy hit Padosan in which he played a lovelorn village bumpkin. He proved his mettle with an intense portrayal of a handicap man in Khaandan in the 1960s.

He also acted in several memorable films like Bimal Roy's Gaban, BR Chopra's Waqt, Gumraah and Humraaz and A. Subba Rao's Milan. Other hit films to his name are Nagin (1976) and Jaani Dushman (1979).

Dutt turned producer in the early sixties with a couple of offbeat movies like Yeh Raaste Hain Pyar Ke (1963), where heroine Leela Naidu has an adulterous relationship, Mujhe Jeene Do (1963) where he played a tough-as-a-nails dacoit and Yaadein in 1964 in which there was only one character played by Dutt.

Dutt was not just a hero in films, but in real life too he emerged as a man worth emulating. After the death of his wife in 1981 due to cancer, he founded the Nargis Dutt Cancer Foundation and in the following year he produced and directed Dard Ka Rishta, a film that dealt with the agony of a family dealing with the scourge of cancer.

In the 80s, Dutt began his political journey and continued his social activism. In a remarkable gesture for peace, he walked all the way from Mumbai to the Golden Temple in Amritsar to pray for peace in the days when Sikh militancy gripped Punjab.

Sunil Dutt was first elected to the Lok Sabha in 1984. In his political career he won five times from the Mumbai North West constituency. He was appointed as the minister of youth and sports affairs last year under the UPA government.